The scene at Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland has been making international headlines. Early yesterday morning police shut down the tent city that stood in front of Frank Ogawa Plaza for nearly two weeks. KALW’s criminal justice reporter Ali Winston reported from the plaza.

By late afternoon, as many as a thousand people responded by marching through the streets of Downtown Oakland. Just after dark, police from the City of Oakland and other agencies repeatedly used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. KALW’s Casey Miner was there.

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BEN TREFNY: Casey, give us a sense of what the crowd was like. Who was there?

CASEY MINER: The rally began in front of the main branch of the Oakland public library. It was conducted in the style of the general assemblies that govern the occupy movement – one person speaking, the people around him shouting back what he said so everyone could hear. There were several hundred people, not all of whom had been at the encampment. They were upset about what had happened, and also about the broader economic issues of the Occupy movement.

TREFNY: And did people see those two things as related?

MINER: They did – there was a feeling that the way the city responded to the camp was not only out of proportion to the problem, but that it was kind of a waste of money and energy that could be going to address these other issues. I spoke with one Oakland resident, Tommie Sexton, who came to the rally with his 16-month-old daughter.

TOMMIE SEXTON: I’m so angry. This city is falling apart. There’s no money here. They’re closing schools, they’re closing libraries. That they have the money to do this is outrageous.

TREFNY: Seventeen law enforcement agencies from San Jose to Solano County took part in the action, which was planned for several days. Now, Casey, things became very chaotic later in the night. You were there. What happened?

MINER: Pretty soon after the demonstrators started marching, maybe around 5:30, there was a scuffle at 8th and Washington – people threw paint on police, and a few arrests were made. From there demonstrators continued to march. One of the demonstrators – he called himself Z – – was one of a handful of people really loudly telling people to keep moving.

MINER: Yes, there were hundreds of people – definitely disrupting traffic – but really, very peaceful. Unlike earlier in the day, there were no police escorts, no officers anywhere that I could see. That went on for about an hour, as night fell. And it felt really positive, really like people were getting the space for discussion THAT they wanted. This young woman, Temika Gardener, actually came and found me.

TEMIKA GARDNER: Finally, I’m walking down the street with people and any one of them I know I have something in common with.

TREFNY: So Casey, it sounds like they were marching peacefully, for the most part. But things took a turn.

MINER: Yes, around 7:30, the marchers returned to 14th and Broadway, right in front of Frank Ogawa Plaza. And that’s where an officer started saying through a megaphone that they were going to use tear gas.

TREFNY: And then they did.

MINER: And then they did. They shot the first major rounds off around 7:45. That really changed the tone of the night. One of the protesters, a man named Scott Olson who’s a Marine Corps veteran and member of Veterans for Peace, was struck in the head with either a tear gas canister or a beanbag round. Right now, he’s in critical condition at Highland Hospital with skull fractures. He was not the only person wounded by less-lethal rounds: many were struck with beanbags, and one woman was knocked out cold with either tear gas or flash-bang grenades. The confrontations between demonstrators and police continued for several hours.

Occupy organizers have called for a general assembly meeting at 14th and Broadway at 6 tonight. Stay up to date by visiting our criminal justice blog, The Informant.